AMERSHAM Swimming Club began their season on a winning note at the Northampton Open Meet where they claimed five national qualifying times.

The Bucks swimmers also collected six gold, five silver and five bronze medals as their squad notched up 28 personal best times between them.

Twelve-year-old Katie Towers was the star of the Amersham show as they claimed the lions share of their gold medal haul, taking four home with her.

Towers had wins in the 100 metre individual medley, with a new meet record, 100m backstroke, 200m individual medley and 200m backstroke before adding silver in the 100m butterfly.

Chloe Osborne, 15, claimed the club's fifth gold in the 100m individual medley, also in a record meet time. She then added silvers from the 100m and 200m breaststroke and bronze from the 200m individual medley to her haul.

Thirteen-year-old Robert Jones claimed the club's last gold in the 200m breaststroke. And he made it a hat-trick with silver in the 100m breaststroke and bronze in the 100m individual medley.

There was also a silver and bronze for Tom Wyman, in the 100m individual medley and 100m freestyle respectively, to make his return from illness a successful one.

Also back from illness was Kate Antrobus, who claimed bronze in the 100m breaststroke.

There were national qualifying times for Andrea Poore, who claimed three national times, Hannah Shaw and Jane Stalker.

But it was bad luck for Jennifer Howard, who missed out on a qualifying time by two-tenths-of-a-second.